n the committee
for carrying out the declaration for the settlement of Ireland and on
the committee for Irish affairs, while later, in 1671 and 1672, he was
a leading member of various commissions appointed to investigate the
working of the Acts of Settlement. In February 1661 he had obtained a
captaincy of horse, and in 1667 he exchanged his vice-treasuryship of
Ireland for the treasuryship of the navy. His public career was marked
by great independence and fidelity to principle. On the 24th of July
1663 he alone signed a protest against the bill "for the encouragement
of trade," on the plea that owing to the free export of coin and
bullion allowed by the act, and to the importation of foreign
commodities being greater than the export of home goods, "it must
necessarily follow ... that our silver will also be carried away into
foreign parts and all trade fail for want of money."[1] He especially
disapproved of another clause in the same bill forbidding the
importation of Irish cattle into England, a mischievous measure
promoted by the duke of Buckingham, and he opposed again the bill
brought in with that object in January 1667. This same year his
naval accounts were subjected to an examination in consequence of his
indignant refusal to take part in the attack upon Ormonde;[2] and he
was suspended from his office in 1668, no charge, however, against him
being substantiated. He took a prominent part in the dispute in 1671
between the two Houses concerning the right of the Lords to amend
money bills, and wrote a learned pamphlet on the question entitled
_The Privileges of the House of Lords and Commons_ (1702), in which
the right of the Lords was asserted. In April 1673 he was appointed
lord privy seal, and was disappointed at not obtaining the great seal
the same year on the removal of Shaftesbury. In 1679 he was included
in Sir W. Temple's new-modelled council.

[v.02 p.0016]

In the bitter religious controversies of the time Anglesey showed
great moderation and toleration. In 1674 he is mentioned as
endeavouring to prevent the justices putting into force the laws
against the Roman Catholics and Nonconformists.[3] In the panic of the
"Popish Plot" in 1678 he exhibited a saner judgment than most of his
contemporaries and a conspicuous courage. On the 6th of December he
protested with three other peers against the measure sent up from the
Commons enforcing the disarming of all convicted recusants and taking
bail from t